Cabinet returns MOI municipality reform proposal

Continuing to draw fire over its plans for local government reform in regard to changes in the status of special municipalities, the Cabinet, after receiving the Ministry of the Interior's (MOI) draft proposal yesterday, immediately sent it back to the MOI without setting a deadline for its resubmission.

The Cabinet cited a need to address "practical problems" that reform might present and to devolve certain powers in such a way as to optimize local autonomy.

"The premier wants the MOI to gather more opinions from differing perspectives, and he wants the proposal to be more comprehensive and sophisticated," said Minister Without Portfolio Yeh Jiunn-rong (葉俊榮), in a press conference held following the first meeting of the Cabinet's Structural Reorganization Committee yesterday.

The MOI was ordered to submit the proposal for local government system reform in February. The proposal, which was released by the MOI last week, included reducing the disparities between the special municipalities of Taipei and Kaohsiung Cities and other local governments and canceling elections for township chiefs, village representatives and borough-wardens.

Under the proposal, the central government would grant more authority to local governments to appoint heads of departments within their bureaucracies. Currently, the central government has the power to appoint people to such posts. Under the MOI's plan, except for the police department and the government ethics department, local commissioners and mayors would have the power to appoint all of their government's top executives.

"The committee agrees with the MOI proposal's direction for reform, but the premier hopes the ministry will address the practical problems that could arise from reform and prepare contingency measures accordingly," said Cabinet spokesman Chuang Suo-hang (莊碩漢).

Chuang didn't specify what risks or practical problems he was referring to.

Minister of the Interior Yu Cheng-hsien (余政憲) explained that the premier wants the MOI to propose measures to transfer powers that will improve local autonomy.

Yu said that his department would seek more opinions from other government departments. He also said that his department is required to submit a new proposal to the committee's next meeting, which is yet to be scheduled.

The Taipei City Government's strong opposition to the MOI's proposal last week is widely believed to be at the root of the premier's concerns.

"We want to submit a proposal for the long term. The Taipei City government is just politicizing the issue," Yu added.

Yeh added that the committee would transfer as many powers and functions as it can to local governments and civil organizations.

"The central government will avoid performing tasks that local governments can do, and governments will avoid doing things that civil organizations can do," Yeh said.

Aside from focusing on the reform of the local government system, the committee is also working on revising the functions of all central government departments and is pushing civil organizations to take over some of government's works.

The Central Personnel Administration's proposal to promote the partnership between the government and civil organizations, including the use of the resources of civil organizations in public affairs, was passed in yesterday's committee meeting.